Loves Brown Sugar Faces Stiff Refrigerator Test

Lone Star Park hosts stake-filled night.

Q-Racing JournalSeptember 26, 2013

Sue Fikes’ Loves Brown Sugar, a former $15,000 claimer, faces the strongest challenge of her career when she tries for her fifth-straight win and fourth-consecutive stakes win in the $75,000 Refrigerator Handicap (G1) over 440 yards on Saturday at Lone Star Park.

The 4-year-old Loves Brown Sugar is the 126-pound high-weight in the eight-horse field.

Loves Brown Sugar (Prime Talent-Loves Easter Bunny by Royal Shake Em) started her winning streak with a win in a Sam Houston Race Park allowance race and then raced to minor stakes wins, all at Retama Park, in the Selma Stakes, King William Handicap and the TQHA Classic Stakes (R).

The Kie Mushinski-trained Loves Brown Sugar was second in the 2012 TQHA Sires Cup Derby (RG3) in her only other stakes appearance.

R.D. Hubbard and Heysol Howlet’s Feature Mr Bojangles (Feature Mr Jess-Catch This Dash by First Down Dash) is making his second 2013 start and his second start for trainer C. Dwayne “Sleepy” Gilbreath. The 4-year-old comes off a close third-place finish in the 440-yard All American Gold Cup (G3) when he was a neck behind champion Prospect To The Top.

Feature Mr Bojangles was named the 2011 champion 2-year-old colt when he won the Rainbow Futurity (G1) and the Hobbs America Futurity (G2).

Wade Helton and Jarrett Helton’s Joker On Jack (PYC Paint Your Wagon-Miss Six Fortune by Six Fortunes) showed his class this summer at Ruidoso Downs when he was third behind Wicked Courage in the $1,055,000 Rainbow Derby (G1). He was then second in his All American Derby trial as the 11-10 favorite.

Supporting the Refrigerator Handicap is a pair of Bank of America Racing Challenge regional races: the $30,000 Merial Lone Star Distaff Challenge and the $30,000 Red Cell Lone Star Distance Challenge. Each winner, assuming they haven’t already won a qualifying race, earns a berth in their respective stakes during the Bank of America Challenge Championships at Los Alamitos on November 9.

The late Joe Kirk Fulton’s homebred Sweet Oblivion (Mr Jess Perry-Daring Difference by Victory Dash) fits well in the Merial Lone Star Distaff Challenge with a win in the Sam Houston Merial Distaff Challenge in May at Sam Houston Race Park. The Mike Robbins-trained mare then made one start at Ruidoso Downs and finished a troubled sixth against males in the $40,000 Higheasterjet Handicap (G3).

Crowson Racing’s Girlrilla (First Down Dash-Girl In The Curl (TB) by In Excess) may be ready for the jump to the stakes ranks after dominating a Lone Star Park allowance race. She drew out to a length win for her second victory from seven starts.

In the 870-yard Red Cell Lone Star Distance Challenge, Bobby Cox’s homebred Wahoo (Feature Mr Jess-First To Celebrate by First Down Dash) stands out in the five-horse field. The John Buchanan-trained gelding easily won the Governor’s Cup Marathon at Sam Houston Race Park as the 3-5 favorite by 3 lengths.